AAAA Scholarship Grant & Loan Selection Procedures

The AAAA Scholarship Foundation, Inc. is a separate corporate entity working in cooperation with the Army Aviation Association of America, Inc. (AAAA) to provide scholarship grants and loans for college level education to members of the AAAA and the spouses, unmarried siblings, unmarried children and unmarried grandchildren of current and deceased AAAA members.

I. APPLICATION PROCESSING

All applications and supporting data are submitted to the AAAA National Office, 593 Main Street, Monroe, CT 06468-2806 before May 1st. The AAAA National Office reviews all documents, removes all references to the names of the applicants and member relatives, and assigns a distinct file number in the sequence of the receipt of the applications to identify all documents that are associated with a particular application. It is important to note that all files that contain the necessary academic information are forwarded to the Scholarship Selection Committee and that the members of the Scholarship Selection Committee are not aware of the identity of the applicants until the selection process is completed; and then, the members of the Committee are informed only of the names of the winners; the names of the non-winners are not made known to the Scholarship Selection Committee.

To assist the Scholarship Selection Committee in their evaluation effort, prior to submission to the Scholarship Selection Committee, the AAAA National Office records the academic scores for each applicant. For entering freshmen, there are three scoring categories used to determine an applicant's overall score: grade point average, class rank, and test scores; for upperclassman and graduate applicants, the only scoring category used is grade point average. The references submitted by the applicant are provided to the Scholarship Selection Committee to provide the Committee members with a more complete picture of the "whole" applicant; but they are not used in the scoring process. The AAAA National Office then establishes a separate Bell Curve for freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate applicants.

To assist the Scholarship Selection Committee in the assignment effort, prior to submission to the Scholarship Selection Committee, the AAAA National Office establishes the eligibility of each applicant for scholarships that have conditions governing the award of the scholarships, i.e., Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships, Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships, Dedicated Scholarships.

II. COMMITTEE EVALUATION

A volunteer National Scholarship Selection Committee is responsible for evaluating all applications and for selecting the annual scholarship grant and loan winners.

There are two meetings of the Scholarship Selection Committee. At the first meeting, the attending members divide into at least two groups depending on the number of attending members, and, in separate simultaneous sessions, establish an Order of Merit List (OML) for all files represented. Historically these files represent the bottom third of our freshman and/or upperclassman, our graduate students, or another segment of our population. These files can change annually however based on the number of applicant files requiring voting. Depending on the files voted, a separate OML is established for freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate students. The OML is based on a rating using a "10 point" scale with "1" being the lowest and "10" being the highest rating. The attending members then have the prerogative to select the top rated freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate applicants files and refer them to the full committee to be considered along with all files representing the top two thirds.

The second meeting is composed of all the members of the Scholarship Selection Committee able to attend the meeting. At this meeting, the attending members again divide into at least two groups, and in separate simultaneous sessions, establish an Order of Merit List (OML) for all files represented. A separate OML is established for freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate students. The OML is based on a rating using a "10 point" scale with "1" being the lowest and "10" being the highest rating.

III. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT OF GRANTS AND LOANS

A. GRANTS

Grants are assigned in descending order by the dollar amount of the grant to the applicants in descending order by the OML. For those grants that are open to freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate students, grants are to be awarded to the applicant with the greatest academic achievement based on the applicant's ranking on the OML in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, and graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds.

If the recipient of a grant is an entering freshman and the grant is less than $2,000, it shall be awarded as a one-year grant; if the grant is $2,000 or more but less than $4,000, it shall be awarded as a two-year grant, if the grant is equal to or more than $4,000, it shall be awarded as a four-year grant. If the recipient is an upperclassman or graduate student, the grant shall be paid out at $1,000 per year.

In the interests of providing Chapter Funded Scholarships to applicants from the chapter area, the committee should first determine whether there are remaining Chapter Funded Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships first.

In the interests of providing Individual Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants meeting the specific sponsoring individual requests, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Individual Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Individual Matching Fund Scholarships next.

In the interests of providing Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants from a specific sponsoring veteran association, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships next.

In the interests of providing Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants from a specific corporation, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships next.

If there are any Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships remaining that have not been assigned, for those Chapters that have any applicants at all, the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarship is assigned to the applicant from another area with the greatest academic achievement based on the applicant's ranking on the OML in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, and graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds.

If there are any Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships remaining that have not been assigned, for those Chapters that have chosen the second option1 who have NOT a single applicant that year, the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarship is not awarded.

If there are any AAAA Specified Scholarships remaining that have not been assigned, the AAAA Specified Scholarship is not awarded; instead, the committee establishes an AAAA Scholarship and assigns the scholarship to the applicant with the greatest academic achievement based on the applicant's ranking on the OML in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, and graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds.

Scholarships of equal value without special restrictions should be assigned last.

B. LOANS

The committee concludes the assignment process with the assignment of scholarship loans to freshman applicants. In the event that there are no remaining freshman applicants requesting loans, the loans are not awarded.

_____________

1 Chapters that sponsor Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships have provided one of the following two options to the committee pertaining to the assignment of their scholarships:

(1.) The Chapter scholarship will be awarded to a Chapter member, or spouse, sibling, or child of a member or deceased member of the Chapter. Scholarships will be awarded in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds. If all applicants from the Chapter area receive other AAAA scholarships or if there are no applicants from the Chapter area, the Chapter scholarship will be awarded to an applicant from another area in accordance with the Order of Merit List (OML) established by the Selection Committee.

(2.) The Chapter Scholarship will be awarded to a Chapter member, or spouse, sibling, or child of a member or deceased member. Scholarships will be awarded in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds. If all applicants from the Chapter receive other AAAA scholarships, the Chapter Scholarship will be awarded to an applicant from another area in accordance with the Order of Merit List (OML), established by the Selection Committee. If there are NO applicants from the Chapter at all that year, the Chapter donation not including the matching amount will be held at the National level for subsequent award in the next year's program.